All three major U.S. equity indices ended the day firmly in the green although off their daily highs as investors turned towards Wall Street to find encouraging signs – and that is what they found.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), a major Wall Street bank, reported a better-than-expected earnings report for the third quarter which may suggest the bank is seeing an uptick in activity which is an encouraging sign for economic growth.

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) also surprised investors with its third quarter report which showed that the streaming video provider attracted more clients than previously expected.

Netflix’s near-20 percent gain in its stock on Tuesday helped push the Nasdaq index higher by 0.85 percent to close the day at 5,243.84 after trading as high as 5,264.27. The S&P 500 index gained 0.62 percent to close the day at 2,139.60 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.42 percent to close at 18,161.94.

All of the major S&P 500 sectors ended Tuesday’s session in positive territory but some performed better than others.

Basic Materials was the best performing sector on Tuesday as the group gained 1.60 percent. Celanese (NYSE: CE) led the group with a more than nine percent gain after the technology and specialty materials company reported a better than expected earnings report.

Stepan Company (NYSE: SCL) also reported a better than expected earnings report and the specialty and intermediate chemicals producer saw its stock hit a new 52-week high of $77.62 before closing the day higher by more than seven percent.

Industrials was the worst performing major sector although it was still higher by 0.38 percent. The sector saw its performance lag the major indices after Methode Electronics (MEI) and Badger Meter (NYSE: BMI) each lost more than seven percent and W W Grainger (NYSE: GWW), the $12.5 billion distributor of maintenance, repair and operating supplies fell more than four percent.

The price of a barrel of crude oil rose 0.92 percent to settle at $50.40 and gold gained 0.55 percent to settle at $1,263.50 an ounce. Within the group, Oasis Petroleum (NYSE: OAS) fell more than four percent after the company priced a 48 million share offering for a gross proceed of $518.4 million. The company was also slapped with a downgrade from analysts at Goldman Sachs.

Indexes

STAY CONNECTED

At Stockmarketdaily.co, we give investors our free and unbiased view of Stock market and also on what happening in global markets. Our team undoubtedly analyse tons of companies every day and provide their unbiased opinion on them. We are always looking over income statements, earnings, analyst updates, joint ventures and balance sheets. We don’t receive compensation from any of the stocks We write about. Also, We don’t “short” any of the stocks We criticise.